Influence of deception of task duration on the sex-specific physiological responses to RPE-clamp cycle ergometry

Pasquale J Succi, Brian Benitez, Minyoung Kwak, Clara J Mitchinson, Timothy A Butterfield, Michael A Samaan, Jody L Clasey, Haley C Bergstrom

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the sex-specific influence of expected exercise duration on the physiological responses to RPE-clamp exercise anchored to RPE 15 with participants being deceived into believing the RPE-clamp exercise would last for 20-, 30-, or 40-min, but all trials were 30-min.

METHODS: Twelve males and 12 females completed a graded exercise test followed by randomly ordered RPE-clamp trials at RPE15 on the Borg 6-20 scale where subjects were deceived into expecting exercise to last for either 20-, 30-, or 40-min, but the actual duration for each trial was 30-min. Separate 2 (Sex [Male vs. Female]) × 3 (Deception [20-min, 30-min, 40-min]) × 11 (Time [0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30 min]) mixed model analyses of variance (ANOVAs) with appropriate follow-up ANOVAs, and Bonferroni-corrected pairwise comparisons, were used to examine changes in volume of oxygen uptake ( V ˙ O 2 ), heart rate (HR), respiration rate (RR), power output, and muscle oxygen saturation (%SmO 2).

RESULTS: Females, but not males, demonstrated lower power outputs when expected duration was 40-min compared to 20-min after approximately half of the exercise bout. V ˙ O 2 , regardless of Sex, was also lower when expected duration was 40-min (62.47 ± 5.59% V ˙ O 2 max ) compared to 20-min (66.35 ± 5.79% V ˙ O 2 max ). There was no effect of expected duration on HR, RR, or %SmO 2, but females demonstrated significantly higher HR (86.06 ± 5.93%HR max) and RR (74.81 ± 7.26%RR max) compared to males (79.52 ± 4.96%HR max; 62.31 ± 5.80%RR max).

CONCLUSIONS: RPE-clamp exercise performance in females, but not males, may be influenced by the expectation of exercise duration.

Original languageEnglish
JournalEuropean Journal of Applied Physiology
DOIs
StateE-pub ahead of print - Jan 7 2025

Bibliographical note

© 2025. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

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